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Government says its case against Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is still strong should there be a legal challenge (Published Saturday, Feb. 1, 2014)

(NECN: Josh Brogadir) - Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is said to have admitted to the bombings before he was read his Miranda rights at the hospital, according to the Boston Globe

But even if that faces a legal challenge, the government says its case is strong, citing the man who was allegedly carjacked, as saying the brothers bragged about the bombings.

ATM photos, snapped a short time before the deadly police shootout and search Thursday night into Friday morning in Watertown, show marathon bombings suspect number two, 19-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.

Boston police say the younger Tsarnaev was using the carjacking victim’s ATM card after the brothers allegedly let that man go.

And we’re learning more about his hospital bed initial appearance at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center on Monday, when he was charged with using weapons of mass destruction.

The judge pointing out that Dzhokhar was "alert, mentally competent, and lucid" and that he only said no when asked if he could afford a lawyer.

His older brother, 26-year-old Tamerlan, killed in a shootout Friday, is described by officials as the leader.

Despite reports that he had been on the radar of Russian authorities and the FBI knew about it, two U.S. officials told the Associated Press that neither brother was connected to terror groups.

Though they say Tamerlan looked frequently at extremist websites, including Inspire online, produced by al-Qaeda in Yemen.

In Mahachkala, Dagestan, southern Russia Tuesday, the parents of the Tsarnaev brothers did not stop to speak with reporters camped outside their home. But their mother did talk the night before, repeating as she has before, that her sons are innocent.

"What happened was a terrible thing. But I know that my kids have nothing to do with this. I know it. I am mother," said Zubeidat Tsarnaeva.

In Rhode Island Tuesday, the attorneys for Katherine Russell Tsarnaev, widow of older brother, Tamerlan, said their client did not know that anything was going on.

"The reports of involvement by her husband and brother-in-law came as an absolute shock to them all," said attorney Miriam Weizenbaum.

The medical examiner has Tamerlan’s body, and it can be claimed by next of kin.

The condition of the surviving suspect, Dzhokhar, has been upgraded at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center from serious to fair.

The number of injured has increased dramatically, from 176 now up to 264 patients treated at area hospitals, according to the Boston Department of Public Health. Fifty-one people remain hospitalized.